I have set up an RSS Feed for this website so that viewers can
identify significant updates in which they are interested, without having to check the Website
Update Log. This is still an ongoing experiment.
Clicking on the RSS icon on the left should allow you to set up a
subscription for general updates to this web site. The update
notifications can be received either by a link on your web browser
or via an email. Receiving the update notifications through
your browser may require an Add-On or Plug-In. With Firefox I
did not need to add anything, but my IE does require an Add-On,
which I have not installed. The email notification does not
appear to require any additional software on your system.
I have also set up a separate RSS feed for the Excel VBA programs I
have developed and distribute from another page.
The notification of program changes will not be received from the
RSS feed on this page.

Overview of This Website

As you might guess from the title of this web and the picture below, sailing
is what this web is about. Sailing has been my primary interest since I
was a teenager, working summers at a camp just off Lake Michigan north of
Muskegon. When I moved to the Washington DC area in 1971, I took advantage
of my proximity to the Chesapeake Bay to purchase my first sailboat.

Photo Courtesy of Unisys Corp.

This first boat was a
1968 Hinterhoeller HR 25, which
is a 25' fiberglass sloop. In 1976 I sold the HR 25 and bought a new
Columbia
8.7. The Columbia 8.7 is a 29' fiberglass sloop, which I named
Vela Llena
(Spanish for "Full Sail"). For a long time Vela Llena was the
perfect boat for me, large enough to take on extended cruises
along the US East Coast, but small enough to keep maintenance
work and costs within reason. I sailed Vela Llena for nearly a
quarter century before selling her in the spring of 2001.

The previous year I purchased a 1978 Pearson
424 , which is a 42' fiberglass ketch. The Pearson , which I
named Sarah, was the boat I intended to use for extended off shore trips for the
next 5 - 6 years, or possibly longer. As of 2012 I have owned Sarah for 12
years and lived aboard full time for over 8 years.
As a shake
down off shore cruise I and five friends sailed Sarah to
Bermuda and back in the
summer of 2001. In June, 2007 I completed an
Atlantic Circle
cruise (transatlantic to the Azores, Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean and
then transatlantic again back to the USA) on Sarah. When Sarah is underway you can also check my current location via
Winlink
Position Reporting or click on the SV Sarah link at the top of this page
then select Sarah's Location from the menu for that section of this website.

The initial step on the Atlantic Circle was accomplished in the fall of 2004 when
I moved Sarah from the Chesapeake Bay to Fort Pierce, FL via the Intracoastal
Waterway (ICW) and an off shore
sail. Mike Repass and I departed on the transatlantic leg of the cruise
in May, 2005. We stopped in the
Bahamas,
Bermuda and the
Azores before making landfall near Lisbon,
Portugal.
I spent the winter of 2005-2006 on Sarah at the marina in Cascais, Portugal.
During the spring and summer of 2006 I cruised Sarah from Cascais to the
Balearic Islands of Spain. Sarah spent the winter of 2006/2007 in Lagos,
PT. In May, 2007 Bob Calt and I sailed Sarah back to the USA by way of
Madeira and
Bermuda.

After repowering Sarah over the
winter of 2007/8 I departed the Chesapeake in October and spent the
following winter in the Bahamas.
I returned to the USA in 2009 and spent a year in New Bern, NC.
In 2010 I briefly returned to the Chesapeake Bay then headed
south again in fall. I spent the winters of 2010/2011 and
2011/2012 in Jacksonville, FL. In between those stays in
Jacksonville, Sarah was back in the
Chesapeake Bay. Currently (September, 2014) Sarah is back in
Jacksonville.

The contents of the website sections are described below. To navigate
within the site click on one of the section titles at the top of the page and
then use the menus on the left to view pages on the various topics in those
sections.

You are currently in the Home section of the site. Here you will find
an overview of the site and information on its history. Each
section of the site has its own menu on the left side of the screen.
This can be used to navigate to the various pages and topics in a
section.

Within the Home section the pages and topics are:

Overview: This page.

About This Site: This is a description of how this site came about and
why it looks the way it does.

Website Update Log: This is a history of the significant changes to the
content and format of the site.

Links: This page is a list of links to other sites that are
either referenced in one or more of the pages in the site,
of related subject matter to the pages on this site, or just
another web site that I enjoy.

The contents of the other sections are described below.

SV Sarah: Sarah is the name of my 42' ketch sailboat and this section
provides pictures and descriptions of this vessel

SV Whoosh: Whoosh is the name of
another Pearson 424 Ketch owned by Jack and Patricia Tyler.
This section of the website contains articles written by Jack &
Patricia on cruising under sail. Many of the articles are
specific to cruising in Europe and the South Pacific.

Sailing: This section of the website documents my life-long interest and
participation in sailing. Included in this section are
pictures and descriptions of many of the cruises and off-shore races
I have participated in.

Non-Sailing: This section covers that small part of my life that was not
directly related to sailing.

If you have questions or wish to make comments on the contents of this page
please send an email to webmaster "at" svsarah "dot" com